I feel like this game has no clear target audience.
The best way i can describe it, is that it's a survival horror game made for women (women that can actually play video games).
It deals with a multitude of woman oriented subjects, and specifically with the complex hierarchy of girls social circles while they're still young/in school, and the bullying and drama associated with it.
But, most women haven't played this game, assuming they even give it a try most are going to react like "why isn't this grown ass woman slapping these little shits around?" because they'll never get far enough in the game to realize that the protagonist is reminiscing in a fantasy, twisted version of real events that happened to her in her youth and inside this story she has reverted back to being a little girl.
Most men playing this game will either be unable to relate to it's themes, or unable to even finish it because the gameplay is, quite frankly, atrocious.
It's a horror game with women as it's target audience that will never play it, and men as it's secondary possible audience that will give up on it because it plays like shit and it's 99% atmosphere/character focused.
So who's left?
Basically nobody, just weirdos like me that have an interest in old, niche survival horror games.
This game was made by Punchline.
The only other game they've ever made was Chulip.
Chulip was another game with a similiar problem: it had no main audience.
These days people play Chulip with the only intention of playing some quirky obscure "lol so whacky" japanese comedy game, and don't really sit down and try to take in it's strance and melancholic atmosphere.
Most will never even reach the part of the game where you have tea with a deceased girl and slowly unravel her tragic story that is actually pretty genuinely sad.
What was up with Punchline?
Why did they make such weird and specific games that most people couldn't possibly get into?
What was the point?
